Showtimes available on April 22, 2008
Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed (PG) At Smithfield 10 at 4:25 & 7:20 thru Thurs. At Premiere 12 in Goldsboro at 5:30, 7:30 & 9:30 thru Thurs.
Baby Mama (PG-13) At Smithfield 10 at 4:30 & 7:05 thru Thurs. At Premiere 12 in Goldsboro at 5:15, 7:15 & 9:15 thru Thurs. Carmike 10 in Wilson at 7:30 & 9:50 thru Thurs.
Smart People (R) At Carmike 10 in Wilson at 7:30 & 9:50 thru Thurs.
At Smithfield 10: Starting Fri: Iron Man (PG-13) 4:15, 4:40, 7 & 7:20, also 9:35 & 10 Fri-Sat, 11 & 11:20 Sat & Sun; Now Playing: Baby Mama (PG-13) 4:30 & 7:05 thru Thurs; Deception (R) 4:30 & 7 thru Thurs; 88 Minutes (R) 4:40 & 7:15 thru Thurs; Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed (PG) 4:25 & 7:20 thru Thurs; Forbidden Kingdom (PG-13) 4:35 & 7:10 thru Thurs; Forgetting Sarah Marshall (R) 4:20 & 7 thru Thurs; Leatherheads (PG-13) 7:15 thru Thurs; Nim’s Island (PG) 4:40 & 7:10 thru Thurs; 21 (PG-13) 4:35 & 7:05 thru Thurs; Dr. Seuss’ Horton Hears A Who! (G) 4:15 thru Thurs; Prom Night (PG-13) 4:45 & 7:20 thru Thurs.
At Premiere Theatre 12 in Goldsboro: Now Playing: 88 Minutes (R) 4:30, 7:10 & 9:25 thru Thurs; Baby Mama (PG-13) 5:15, 7:15 & 9:15 thru Thurs; Deception (R) 4:40, 7 & 9:20 thru Thurs; Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed (PG) 5:30, 7:30 & 9:30 thru Thurs; Forbidden Kingdom (PG-13) 5, 7:20 & 9:40 thru Thurs; Forgetting Sarah Marshall (R) 4:30, 7 & 9:10 thru Thurs; Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay (R) 4:50, 7:15 & 9:25 thru Thurs; Leatherheads (PG-13) 4:30, 7:10 & 9:25 thru Thurs; Nim's Island (PG) 5:15, 7:15 & 9:15 thru Thurs; Prom Night (PG-13) 5:05, 7:05 & 9:05 thru Thurs; Street Kings (R) 5:10, 7:15 & 9:20 thru Thurs; Tyler Perry's Meet the Browns (G) 5, 7 & 9 thru Thurs.
At Carmike 10 in Wilson: Starting Fri: Iron Man (PG-13) Sneak Preview at 8 on Thurs, Fri-Sun 1, 1:30, 2, 4, 4:30, 5, 7, 7:30 & 8, also 10:20 & 10:50 Fri-Sat; Now Playing: Deception (R) 7:10 & 9:35 thru Thurs; Baby Mama (PG-13) 7:30 & 9:50 thru Thurs; Smart People (R) 7:30 & 9:50 thru Thurs; Forgetting Sarah Marshall (R) 7:10 & 9:45 thru Thurs; 88 Minutes (R) 7:20 & 9:50 thru Thurs; The Forbidden Kingdom (PG-13) 7 & 9:40 thru Thurs; Street Kings (R) 9:50 thru Thurs; Prom Night (PG-13) 7:40 & 9:50 thru Thurs; Tyler Perry’s “Meet the Browns” (PG-13) 7:45 thru Thurs; Horton Hears A Who (G) 7:20 thru Thurs; Leatherheads (PG-13) 10:10 thru Thurs; Nim’s Island (PG) 7:30 & 9:50 thru Thurs.
At Howell Theatre in Smithfield: All Movies $2.00 all the time. Held Over: Fool's Gold (PG-13) 7 & 9, except 4:30 & 9:15 Fri, 12:30, 3 & 9:15 Sat, 2:30, 4:45 & 7:15 Sun; Tyler Perry's Meet the Browns (PG-13) 7 & 9 except 4:30 & 9:15 Fri, 12:30, 3 & 9:15 Sat, 2:30, 4:45 & 7:15 Sun; Jumper (PG-13) 7 & 9, except 9:15 Fri & Sat, 7:15 Sun; The Bucket List (PG) 7 & 9, except 9:15 Fri. & Sat., Mon-Thurs., 4:30 Fri., 12:30 & 3 Sat., 2:30, 4:45 & 7:15 Sun.; Alvin and the Chipmunks (PG) 7 & 9, except 4:30 Fri., 12:30 & 3 Sat., 2:30 & 4:45 Sun.
The Ruins (R)
Leatherheads (PG-13)
Street Kings (R)
Stop-Loss (R)
Forgetting Sarah Marshall (R)
88 Minutes (R)
Smart People (R)
Baby Mama(PG-13)
Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed (PG)
Movie Review Archive (Prior to July 2007) or search by keyword.
Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed (PG) is a documentary film produced and co-written by Ben Stein in an effort to explain the current scientific bias against teaching Creationism as a true account of how the Earth came to be. Through interviews with leading scientists who either violently disagree with or see the merits of Intelligent Design (or ID, as the theory is called), Stein draws attention to what he sees as a widespread censorship of Creationism or ID as a valid theory. Instead, he sets out to prove, many scientists and educators instead present Darwin's theories of natural selection and a strict Evolutionary theory as the correct one. Even someone who isn't religious can still believe in Intelligent Design, but it seems that those who are fully on the side of Evolutionary theory and Darwinism often have lost their faith and instead see our very existence as a sort of cosmic accident. Stein, through interviews, shows that such a strict adherence to Darwinism, if taken to an unhealthy extreme, can lead to the extermination of the elderly, the infirm, and those society deems "weak."
The implications of this movie are pretty scary, and they aren't limited to science and the way some researchers are hobbling themselves by not thinking outside the box. Children who pursue the sciences even now are being taught that Creationism is a ridiculous concept. If we are to keep our country free, as Stein argues, intellectual freedom has to be kept sacred. Rating is for thematic material and some images. – Ashley Merrill
Baby Mama (PG-13), I admit, when I first saw the previews, I thought to myself that if Tina Fey wasn’t starring in the movie, I wouldn’t be interested in it. The plot was wacky and predictable; and yet, the cast of the film made it interesting.
Fey stars as Kate Holbrook, a middle-aged executive who put her career first but now desperately wants to have a baby. After receiving bad news about both her chances at conceiving and adoption, she follows her sister’s advice and seeks a surrogate mother.
Amy Poehler plays Angie, the immature surrogate mother who eventually has to move in with Kate. As expected (and capitalized in the trailer) chaos ensues, but the two eventually learn from each other and become better people.
The script itself featured virtually nothing we’ve never seen. But the leading actresses, as well as supporting cast members like Steve Martin, Dax Shepard, and Sigourney Weaver made the movie worthwhile. It was funny, and proved the point that female SNL alums can be successful too.
The movie is rated PG-13 for crude and sexual humor, as well as language. It wasn’t particularly a movie that I’d even see the pre-teen crowd interested in, so limit it to the rating’s suggestion of 13 and up. – Sarah Wise
Smart People (R) stars Dennis Quaid as Lawrence Wetherhold, an arrogant, unsociable English college professor raising a son and daughter, James (Ashton Holmes) and Vanessa (Ellen Page) on his own after his wife's death. An accident lands Lawrence in the emergency room, where he reconnects with a past student, Dr. Janet Hartigan (Sarah Jessica Parker). Then Lawrence's misfit adopted brother Chuck (Thomas Hayden Church) shows up needing a place to stay. The interaction between the five of them is the majority of the movie.
The previews for this reminded me of The Family Stone (which also starred Sarah Jessica Parker as the girlfriend who spends a weekend with the unconventional family), but where that movie was mostly lighthearted and comedic, Smart People's humor is dry and usually pretty dark. The leads all give a good performance, and while you won't leave the theater laughing, you will have had a pretty enjoyable ride anyway. Rating is for some language, drug and alcohol use, and thematic elements. – Ashley Merrill
88 Minutes (R), starring Al Pacino, Alicia Witt, Leelee Sobieski, Amy Brenneman, William Forsythe, Deborah Kara Unger, Benjamin McKenzie, Neal McDonough, and others.
Known for his testimony in many high-profile cases, forensic psychiatrist Dr. Jack Gramm (Al Pacino) is respected and sought after. He’s also carrying around some horrible memories of his little sister’s murder when she came to visit him and he had to go somewhere and left her alone.
It’s time to put down serial killer Jon Forster and Gramm becomes distracted by the copycat killings of people he cares about – the cases which buy Forster’s delay. And then he gets a call saying he has 88 minutes to live.
Everyone is suspect for the cell calls counting down Gramm’s minutes until his death. It includes his college class, his teaching assistant as well, various suspicious persons he catches watching him. It gets a little sloppy at the end but if you let go of reality and just let it flow over you, it’s not as bad as some reviews I’ve heard. Al Pacino was the single quality actor in the movie and I think he did a great job, he had no support in his costars.
If you had to give it a genre, I suppose thriller suits, but I would have called it horror due to the visuals associated with a serial killer’s methods.
Rated R for lots of bloody killings, and terrorizing.- Marilyn Merrill
Forgetting Sarah Marshall(R), Judd Apatow’s latest release, is a funny and honest look at how people deal with breaking up and moving on.
Jason Segal stars as Peter, who is dumped by TV star girlfriend Sarah Marshall (Kristen Bell) in the first few scenes of the movie. As he mourns his broken relationship, Peter’s stepbrother Brian (Bill Heder) suggests he takes a vacation to forget about Sarah.
Peter opts for a trip to Hawaii, staying at a resort he remembers Sarah mentioning often. As he checks in, he discovers Sarah is also at the resort with her new boyfriend, European rockstar Aldous Snow (Russell Brand).
The film follows Peter’s often miserable journey through the break-up, and shows how, with the help of new friends and staff members at the resort, he moves beyond his pain.
The movie does feature its fair share of dirty jokes and funny cultural references. But the comments are woven into a natural dialogue and story line that seeks to show the other side of love. Nudity, including a few full-frontal shots, are included. But the raunchiness isn’t there just for the laugh. Instead, it often helps portray the vulerability of the characters.
The film is rated R for nudity, profanity, and sexual situations. It’s definitely not for the younger crowd. However, I highly recommend this movie for those eighteen and up.
I also noted that, while the theater version of the film is quite funny, many of the hilarious moments from the trailer were not in the theater release. I have high hopes that the DVD release of this film will include those moments, but I would not advise you to wait for the DVD release to see the movie. – Sarah Wise
Street Kings (R) stars Keanu Reeves as Tom, a Los Angeles vice detective who isn't always "good." He drinks a lot and isn't above planting evidence, but he always gets his man. When a chief (Hugh Laurie, who plays Dr. House on House) starts investigating Tom and Tom's captain (Forest Whitaker), bad things start to happen. Tom's caught in a gun battle that is investigated by another detective nicknamed "Disco" (Chris Evans, who is the Flaming Torch from Fantastic 4), but a lot of the clues don't add up and Tom starts wondering exactly what's going on. John Corbett (from My Big Fat Greek Wedding), Cedric the Entertainer, Jay Mohr, and The Game also star.
I wasn't expecting much going into this movie, but when I walked out I thought it was awesome. The story's complicated but it's interesting, and there is a lot of violence. Rating is for the violence and language. I recommend this movie. – Ginger Wright
Stop-Loss (R) is the military's practice of stopping the "loss" of a soldier after his tour of duty is complete. Brandon King (Ryan Philippe) has served his time in Afghanistan and Iraq and is looking forward to getting back home to life in Texas, but after a weekend spent unwinding with his fellow soldiers, King receives orders that he's to report back to duty. His best friend Steve (Channing Tatum) is also ready to leave, but against the wishes of his longtime girlfriend Michelle (Abbie Cornish), he reenlists to go back to sniper school. While King does everything he can to fight his orders and Steve watches his relationship come apart, the third member of their band, Tommy (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), starts coming apart at the seams.
This isn't an anti-patriotic movie. King was glad to serve his country, but he's seen too much in his time of service to willingly go back, and he's conflicted about whether to buck his orders or leave his friends behind. The movie is long, but I think it was well-done, even down to Philippe's so-thick-you-can-cut-it Texan accent. Rating for graphic violence and pervasive language. – Ashley Merrill
In The Ruins (R), four friends on vacation in Mexico decide to do something meaningful in an otherwise unremarkable trip: accompany a fellow German tourist to an archaeology dig site off the beaten path. Despite many warnings not to go, they visit the ruins of a Mayan temple, a huge stepped stone pyramid that looks fit for blood sacrifices. Soon after they arrive, a band of Mayan villagers sets up camp, armed with guns and arrows, and forces the friends and their German guide to the top of the pyramid, where they are captive. That's when the crazy things start happening, and if you've seen any horror movies you know that soon, it's going to be all gory death.
The four main actors are actually pretty good: Jena Malone has made a name for herself in indie movies, Jonathan Tucker was in "The Black Donnellys," Laura Ramsey played the love interest in 2006's The Covenant, and Shawn Ashmore has been in the three X-Men movies. Although the story had a pretty interesting twist to it, for the most part it's your standard horror movie. If you love a movie that ends up dripping in blood and promises a lot of horrifying visuals, this is it. Rating for strong violence and gruesome images, language, some sexuality, and nudity, so don't take the kids or anyone with a weak stomach. – Ashley Merrill
I went into Leatherheads (PG-13), George Clooney’s latest attempt at recapturing that old Hollywood class, expecting the film to either be really good or really bad.
And, well, it was neither one.
Leatherheads tells the story of the early days of professional football, when the fans flocked by the thousand to college games but considered pro football the arena of working-class men who refuse to grow up. The movie opens at a pivotal moment for the professional game in 1925, when Dodge Connelly (Clooney) is managing the broke Duluth Bulldogs. Dodge makes a bold choice and manages to recruit star college player Carter Rutherford (John Krasinski), which boost the league to popularity. However, the popularity begs regulation and rules, which Dodge feels will ruin the game.
Spunky reporter Lexie Littleton (Renee Zellweger) makes things even more complicated, becoming a love interest of both Carter and Dodge, all while setting out to destroy Carter’s war-hero image.
The film had outstanding performances from all three of the lead talents, but failed to ever come together as one whole interesting story. The movie takes tangents instead of integrating the subplot with the main story. The main flaw was a constant identity crisis, during which the movie switches genres instead of blending them. Is the story of the early days of football? A movie about how rules ruin the game? A romance? A screwball comedy? Slapstick?
Overall, the film wasn’t bad, but never developed the character or plot to anything beyond predictable and boring. The PG-13 rating is solely based on brief strong language; there is no nudity and the violence is limited to the game and a bar fight late in the movie. Good for the entire family on a lazy weekend, but not an especially memorable movie. – Sarah Wise